The manual assembly of thin, flexible strips of material of limited resiliency such as strips of polished aluminum to a plastic base member requires great dexterity on the part of the assembler primarily because of the tendency of said strips to be permanently deformed by even the slightest overbending which may create a permanent crease in the strip. The assembly of such a strip with a base usually involves the seating of a perfectly flat strip in a recess formed in the base. With a flat strip, adhesives were necessary to attach the strip to the base so that it would lie flat and would not shift around or lift. In accordance with the teachings of this invention, a precisely pre-bowed strip is used with its ends bent outwardly relative to the base to provide an outwardly facing concave configuration relative to the base. The amount of bowing need not be large, only enough to provide some resiliency to hold the strip in the recess. The bowed ends of the precisely pre-bent strip are captured under lips or overhangs formed at the ends of the recess in the base member. Adhesives may still be applied, in a later step, to prevent removal of the strip after it has been assembled. Alternately, the plastic of the base member may be deformed against an end of the strip to fasten it in position. The elongated strip, after assembly, will be retained flush in the recess of the base member by engagement of the lips or overhangs of the base member with the bowed ends of the strip. The strip will appear to be lying flat and will not shift in the recess. However, if the strip is bent or stressed beyond its pre-bent condition during assembly it will not lie flat in the recess and will not remain attached to the base member in an attractive manner.
Because it is necessary for the assembler to bend the elongated strip in the direction opposite to that of the bowing to tuck the opposite ends of the strip under the lips or overhangs at the ends of the recess, the problem of overbending the strip and creating a permanent deformation in the strip is always present during assembling operations.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a method of assembly of a strip of a material of limited resiliency such as a polished aluminum strip which will not result in the unwanted deformation of the strip.
Another object of this invention is a method of assembly of a strip of a material of limited resiliency which facilitates the assembly by providing a controlled amount of bending of the strip during assembly.
Another object of this invention is a method of assembling a decorative strip into the recess of a base member which does not require the exercise of judgment by the assembler as to the amount of bending of the decorative strip.
Yet another object of this invention is a method of assembly of a strip into the recess of a base member which does not require the use of a mechanical aid.
A further object of this invention is an appliance trim having a decorative strip seated in a recess which strip is anchored at one end to an overhang of the recess by a deformed portion of the base to allow for differential expansion of the strip and the base.
Still another object of this invention is an appliance trim having an elongated, decorative strip seated in a recess in a base member which strip is held in an apparently flat orientation by the engagement of its slightly bowed ends with overhangs at the ends of the recess.
Other objects of the invention will be found in the following specification, claims and drawings.